Preparation and spectroscopy of a metastable Mott-insulator state with attractive interactions.

We prepare and study a metastable attractive Mott-insulator state formed with bosonic atoms in a three-dimensional optical lattice. Starting from a Mott insulator with Cs atoms at weak repulsive interactions, we use a magnetic Feshbach resonance to tune the interactions to large attractive values and produce a metastable state pinned by attractive interactions with a lifetime on the order of 10 s. We probe the (de)excitation spectrum via lattice modulation spectroscopy, measuring the interaction dependence of two- and three-body bound-state energies. As a result of increased on-site three-body loss we observe resonance broadening and suppression of tunneling processes that produce three-body occupation.

Three-body correlation functions and recombination rates for bosons in three dimensions and one dimension.

We investigate local three-body correlations for bosonic particles in three dimensions and one dimension as a function of the interaction strength. The three-body correlation function g(3) is determined by measuring the three-body recombination rate in an ultracold gas of Cs atoms. In three dimensions, we measure the dependence of g(3) on the gas parameter in a BEC, finding good agreement with the theoretical prediction accounting for beyond-mean-field effects. In one dimension, we observe a reduction of g(3) by several orders of magnitude upon increasing interactions from the weakly interacting BEC to the strongly interacting Tonks-Girardeau regime, in good agreement with predictions from the Lieb-Liniger model for all strengths of interaction.

Precision measurements on a tunable Mott insulator of ultracold atoms.

We perform precision measurements on a Mott-insulator quantum state of ultracold atoms with tunable interactions. We probe the dependence of the superfluid-to-Mott-insulator transition on the interaction strength and explore the limits of the standard Bose-Hubbard model description. By tuning the on-site interaction energies to values comparable to the interband separation, we are able to quantitatively measure number-dependent shifts in the excitation spectrum caused by effective multibody interactions.

Control of interaction-induced dephasing of Bloch oscillations.

We report on the control of interaction-induced dephasing of Bloch oscillations for an atomic Bose-Einstein condensate in an optical lattice. We quantify the dephasing in terms of the width of the quasimomentum distribution and measure its dependence on time for different interaction strengths which we control by means of a Feshbach resonance. For minimal interaction, the dephasing time is increased from a few to more than 20 thousand Bloch oscillation periods, allowing us to realize a BEC-based atom interferometer in the noninteracting limit.

Metastable feshbach molecules in high rotational states.

We experimentally demonstrate Cs2 Feshbach molecules well above the dissociation threshold, which are stable against spontaneous decay on the time scale of 1 s. An optically trapped sample of ultracold dimers is prepared in a high rotational state and magnetically tuned into a region with a negative binding energy. The metastable character of these molecules arises from the large centrifugal barrier in combination with negligible coupling to states with low rotational angular momentum. A sharp onset of dissociation with increasing magnetic field is mediated by a crossing with a lower rotational dimer state and facilitates dissociation on demand with a well-defined energy.

Evidence for Efimov quantum states in an ultracold gas of caesium atoms.

Systems of three interacting particles are notorious for their complex physical behaviour. A landmark theoretical result in few-body quantum physics is Efimov's prediction of a universal set of bound trimer states appearing for three identical bosons with a resonant two-body interaction. Counterintuitively, these states even exist in the absence of a corresponding two-body bound state. Since the formulation of Efimov's problem in the context of nuclear physics 35 years ago, it has attracted great interest in many areas of physics. However, the observation of Efimov quantum states has remained an elusive goal. Here we report the observation of an Efimov resonance in an ultracold gas of caesium atoms. The resonance occurs in the range of large negative two-body scattering lengths, arising from the coupling of three free atoms to an Efimov trimer. Experimentally, we observe its signature as a giant three-body recombination loss when the strength of the two-body interaction is varied. We also detect a minimum in the recombination loss for positive scattering lengths, indicating destructive interference of decay pathways. Our results confirm central theoretical predictions of Efimov physics and represent a starting point with which to explore the universal properties of resonantly interacting few-body systems. While Feshbach resonances have provided the key to control quantum-mechanical interactions on the two-body level, Efimov resonances connect ultracold matter to the world of few-body quantum phenomena.